Iob_09 Chapter 1

Then Job answered and said,

I know of a truth that it is so: for how shall a mortal man be just before the Lord?

For if he would enter into judgment with him, God would not hearken to him, so that he should answer to one of his charges of a thousand.

For he is wise in mind, and mighty, and great: who has hardened himself against him and endured?

Who wears out the mountains, and men know it not: who overturns them in anger.

Who shakes the earth under heaven from its foundations, and its pillars totter.

Who commands the sun, and it rises not; and he seals up the stars.

Who alone has stretched out the heavens, and walks on the sea as on firm ground.

Who makes Pleias, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and the chambers of the south.

Who does great and unsearchable things; glorious also and excellent things, innumerable.

If ever he should go beyond me, I shall not see him: if he should pass by me, neither thus have I known it.

If he would take away, who shall turn him back? or who shall say to him, What hast thou done?

For if he has turned away his anger, the whales under heaven have stooped under him.

Oh then that he would hearken to me, or judge my cause.

For though I be righteous, he will not hearken to me: I will intreat his judgment.

And if I should call and he should not hearken, I cannot believe that he has listened to my voice.

Let him not crush me with a dark storm: but he has made by bruises many without cause.

For he suffers me not to take breath, but he has filled me with bitterness.

For indeed he is strong in power: who then shall resist his judgment?

For though I should seem righteous, my mouth will be profane: and though I should seem blameless, I shall be proved perverse.

For even if I have sinned, I know it not in my soul: but my life is taken away.

Wherefore I said, Wrath slays the great and mighty man.

For the worthless die, but the righteous are laughed to scorn.

For they are delivered into the hands of the unrighteous man: he covers the faces of the judges of the earth: but if it be not he, who is it?

But my life is swifter than a post: my days have fled away, and they knew it not.

Or again, is there a trace of their path left by ships? or is there one of the flying eagle as it seeks its prey?

And if I should say, I will forget to speak, I will bow down my face and groan;

I quake in all my limbs, for I know that thou wilt not leave me alone as innocent.

But since I am ungodly, why have I not died?

For if I should wash myself with snow, and purge myself with pure hands,

thou hadst thoroughly plunged me in filth, and my garment had abhorred me.

For thou art not man like me, with whom I could contend, that we might come together to judgment.

Would that he our mediator were present, and a reprover, and one who should hear the cause between both.

Let him remove his rod from me, and let not his fear terrify me:

so shall I not be afraid, but I will speak: for I am not thus conscious of guilt.